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Is God A Trinity?
Is God A Trinity?
Is God A Trinity?
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Is God a
Trinity?
2011
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Contents
Introduction
3 Introduction
Even though its one of mainstream Christianitys most widely accepted and
revered doctrines, theologians admit that the Trinity is largely incomprehensible.
ust what is the nature of the true God of the Bible? Is God a Trinity? The Trinity is one of mainstream Christianitys most widely
accepted and revered doctrines. The belief that God is three persons
coexisting in one being or substance, as the doctrine is often defined,
is held by millions of Catholics, Protestants
and Orthodox believers alike.
The Catholic Encyclopedia calls this belief
the central doctrine of the Christian faith
(1912 edition). Yet, as well see, its been a
source of much confusion. Scripture clearly
talks about a God who is called the Father,
Jesus Christ who is called the Son of God,
and a divine Holy Spirit. But how exactly
does the Bible define and describe the three?
Surely a teaching as widespread and popular as the Trinity is scriptural, isnt it?
Yet time and again, theologians and researchers admit it isnt found in the Bible.
Few understand how the Trinity doctrine came to be acceptedseveral centuries after the Bible was completed! Yet its roots go back much farther in history.
Scripture tells us that the Lord our God, the Lord is onefrom which some
believe three persons exist as one God. But is this really what the Bible reveals?
Many assume the Holy Spirit is a third divine person in the Trinity, along with the
Father and the Son. But a closer look at the Bible reveals problems with this view.
Why were you born? Do you understand why you exist? The Trinity doctrine obscures the amazing truth, clearly revealed in Scripture, of Gods purpose for you!
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Introduction
Is God a Trinity?
The doctrine of the Trinity is considered so sacred and fundamental that many
churches and religious organizations view it
This 13th-century fresco in
as a litmus test for defining who is and isnt
a church in Perugia, Italy,
a true Christian.
depicts the Trinity as a being
For example, author and theology profesthree faces representing
sor James White writes: We hang a persons with
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
very salvation upon the acceptance of the
doctrine ... No one dares question the Trinity for fear of being branded
a heretic ... We must know, understand, and love the Trinity to be
fully and completely Christian (The Forgotten Trinity, 1998, pp. 14-15,
emphasis added throughout unless otherwise noted).
The Teaching of Christ: A Catholic Catechism for Adults states: The
dogma of the Trinity is the central dogma of Catholic faith. Only with belief
in it can one grasp and explicitly believe other central Christian teachings.
It is impossible to believe explicitly in the mystery of Christ without
faith in the Trinity ... Nor could one grasp the meaning of eternal life,
or of the grace that leads to it, without believing in the Trinity, for grace
and eternal life are sharing in the Trinitarian life (Donald Wuerl, Ronald
Is God a Trinity?
Introduction
These are surprising admissions about the Trinityan absolute mystery, mysterious in its origin and its content, impossible for Christians
actually to understand, unintelligible, misunderstood, presents strange
paradoxes and widely disputed. Does this really sound like a doctrine on
which to base our faith and salvationespecially when Paul clearly tells us
in 1 Corinthians 14:33 that God is not the author of confusion?
If scholars, theologians and religious authorities admit that we cannot
understand such a major doctrine, shouldnt that tell us something may be
seriously wrong when it comes to that particular belief?
Again, how are we to understand Gods nature?
Is God a Trinity?
any people assume that God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son,
and the Holy Spirit form what is commonly known as the
Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is usually summed up as a
belief in one God existing in three distinct but equal persons.
But did you realize that, even though it is a common assumption among
many sincere religious people, the word Trinity does not appear anywhere
in the Bible? In fact, the word Trinity did not come into common use as
a religious term until centuries after the last books of the Bible were
completedlong after the apostles of Christ were gone from the scene!
Notice this admission in the New Bible Dictionary: The term Trinity
is not itself found in the Bible. It was first used by Tertullian at the close
of the 2nd century, but received wide currency [common use in intellectual
discussion] and formal elucidation [clarification] only in the 4th and 5th
centuries (1996, Trinity).
That same source goes on to explain that the formal doctrine of the
Trinity was the result of several inadequate attempts to explain who and
what the Christian God really is ... To deal with these problems the
Church Fathers met in [A.D.] 325 at the Council of Nicaea to set out an
orthodox biblical definition concerning the divine identity. However, it
wasnt until 381, at the Council of Constantinople, [that] the divinity of
the Spirit was affirmed (ibid.).
We see, then, that the doctrine of the Trinity wasnt formalized until
long after the Bible was completed and the apostles were long dead
in their graves. It took later theologians centuries to sort out what they
believed and to formulate belief in the Trinity!
Why cant theologians explain this doctrine?
Is
the Trinity Biblical?
The New Ungers Bible Dictionary, in its article on the Trinity, concedes that the Trinitarian concept is humanly incomprehensible: It is
admitted by all who thoughtfully deal with this subject that the Scripture
revelation here leads us into the presence of a deep mystery; and that all
human attempts at expression are of necessity imperfect (1988, p. 1308).
Cyril Richardson, professor of church history at New Yorks Union
Theological Seminary, though a dedicated Trinitarian himself, said this
in his book The Doctrine of The Trinity:
My conclusion, then, about the doctrine of the Trinity is that it is an
artificial construct ... It produces confusion rather than clarification;
and while the problems with which it deals are real ones, the solutions
it offers are not illuminating. It has posed for many Christians dark and
mysterious statements, which are ultimately meaningless, because it does
not sufficiently discriminate in its use of terms (1958, pp. 148-149).
He also admitted, Much of the defense of the Trinity as a revealed
doctrine, is really an evasion of the objections that can be brought against
it (p. 16).
A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge states regarding the Trinity, Precisely what that doctrine is, or rather precisely how it is to be explained,
Trinitarians are not agreed among themselves (Lyman Abbott, editor,
1885, Trinitarians).
Why do even those who believe in the Trinity find it so difficult to explain?
The answer is simple yet shocking: Its because the Bible does not teach
it! One cannot prove or explain something from the Bible that is not biblical! The Bible is our only reliable source of divine revelation. And the
truth, as we will see, is that the Trinity concept simply is not part of Gods
revelation to humankind.
But dont just take our word for it! Lets see what some standard works
of biblical scholarship and other individual scholars say.
Surprising admissions that the Trinity isnt in the Bible!
Is
the Trinity Biblical?
Is God a Trinity?
the Scripture for which there are no proof texts. The doctrine of the Trinity
furnishes the best example of this. It is fair to say that the Bible does not
clearly teach the doctrine of the Trinity ... In fact, there is not even one
proof text, if by proof text we mean a verse or passage that clearly states
that there is one God who exists in three persons
(1999, p. 89).
Ryrie goes on to state: The above illustrations
prove the fallacy of concluding that if something is
not proof texted in the Bible we cannot clearly teach
the results ... If that were so, I could never teach
the doctrine of the Trinity (p. 90).
Millard Erickson, research professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,
writes that the Trinity is not clearly or explicitly taught anywhere in Scripture, yet it is widely
regarded as a central doctrine, indispensable to
Martin Luther, who
the Christian faith. In this regard, it goes contrary
initiated the Protestant
to what is virtually an axiom of biblical doctrine,
Reformation, admitnamely, that there is a direct correlation between
ted that the name
the scriptural clarity of a doctrine and its cruciality Trinity is nowhere to
to the faith and life of the church.
be found in the Holy
Scriptures, but has
In view of the difficulty of the subject and the
been conceived and
great amount of effort expended to maintain this
doctrine, we may well ask ourselves what might jus- invented by man.
tify all this trouble (God in Three Persons: A Contemporary Interpretation
of the Trinity, 1995, p. 12).
Professor Erickson further states that the Trinity teaching is not present in biblical thought, but arose when biblical thought was pressed into
this foreign mold [of Greek concepts]. Thus, the doctrine of the Trinity
goes beyond and even distorts what the Bible says about God (p. 20).
Professor Erickson later points out: It is claimed that the doctrine of
the Trinity is a very important, crucial, and even basic doctrine. If that is
indeed the case, should it not be somewhere more clearly, directly, and
explicitly stated in the Bible? If this is the doctrine that especially constitutes Christianitys uniqueness ... how can it be only implied in the
biblical revelation? ... For here is a seemingly crucial matter where the
Scriptures do not speak loudly and clearly.
Little direct response can be made to this charge. It is unlikely that
any text of Scripture can be shown to teach the doctrine of the Trinity
in a clear, direct, and unmistakable fashion (pp. 108-109). Later in this
booklet we will consider various scriptures often used to support the
Trinity doctrine.
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Is God a Trinity?
Shirley Guthrie, Jr., professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, writes: The Bible does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. Neither
the word trinity itself nor such language as one-in-three, three-in-one,
one essence (or substance), and three persons, is biblical language. The
language of the doctrine is the language of the ancient church taken from
classical Greek philosophy (Christian Doctrine, 1994, pp. 76-77).
The background for how the Trinity was introduced
Since the Trinity is not found in the Bible, as so many scholars and
theologians admit, how did it come to be viewed as such an important
teaching?
Theology professors Roger Olson and Christopher Hall explain part of
the puzzle in their book The Trinity: It is understandable that the importance placed on this doctrine is perplexing to many lay Christians and students. Nowhere is it clearly and unequivocally stated in Scripture ... How
can it be so important if it is not explicitly stated in Scripture? ...
The doctrine of the Trinity developed gradually after the completion
of the New Testament in the heat of controversy, but the church fathers
who developed it believed they were simply exegeting [explaining] divine
revelation and not at all speculating or inventing new ideas. The full-blown
doctrine of the Trinity was spelled out in the fourth century at two great
ecumenical (universal) councils: Nicea (325 A.D.) and Constantinople (381
A.D.) (2002, pp. 1-2).
We see from this and other sources quoted above that the idea of a Trinity was foreign to the biblical writers. Instead, as many of these sources
openly acknowledge, the doctrine of the Trinity developed considerably
later and over a span of several centuries.
To understand the factors that led to the introduction of this belief, we
must first go back to see far-reaching and little-understood trends that
started in the first few decades of the early Church. Its a surprisingand
in many ways shockingstory!
The
Surprising Origins of the Trinity Doctrine
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12
The
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13
the last generation of the first century, from 68 to 100 A.D., The Age of
Shadows, partly because the gloom of persecution was over the church,
but more especially because of all the periods in the [churchs] history, it is
the one about which we know the least. We have no longer the clear light
of the Book of Acts to guide us; and no
author of that age has filled the blank in
the history ...
For fifty years after St. Pauls life a
curtain hangs over the church, through
which we strive vainly to look; and when
at last it rises, about 120 A.D. with the
writings of the earliest church fathers, we
find a church in many aspects very different from that in the days of St. Peter
and St. Paul (The Story of the Christian
Church, 1970, p. 33).
This very different church would
grow in power and influence, and within
a few short centuries would come to dominate even the mighty Roman Empire!
The Roman emperor Constantine the Great, while himself
By the second century, faithful members of the Church, Christs little flock not really a Christian, convened
(Luke 12:32), had largely been scattered and played a major role in the
Council of Nicaea, which laid
by waves of deadly persecution. They held the groundwork for acceptance
firmly to the biblical truth about Jesus
of the Trinity doctrine.
Christ and God the Father, though they
were persecuted by the Roman authorities as well as those who professed
Christianity but were in reality teaching another Jesus and a different
gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6-9).
the true Church was largely absent from the scene, having been driven
underground. (See the chapter The Rise of a Counterfeit Christianity
in our free booklet The Church Jesus Built for an overview of this critical period. Download or request your free copy at www.GNmagazine.org/
booklets).
For this reason, in that stormy period we often see debates not between
truth and error, but between one error and a different errora fact seldom
recognized by many modern scholars yet critical for our understanding.
A classic example of this was the dispute over the nature of Christ that
led the Roman emperor Constantine the Great to convene the Council of
Nicaea (in modern-day western Turkey) in A.D. 325.
Constantine, although held by many to be the first Christian Roman
Emperor, was actually a sun-worshiper who was only baptized on his
deathbed. During his reign he had his eldest son and his wife murdered.
He was also vehemently anti-Semitic, referring in one of his edicts to the
detestable Jewish crowd and the customs of these most wicked men
customs that were in fact rooted in the Bible and practiced by Jesus and
the apostles.
As emperor in a period of great tumult within the Roman Empire, Constantine was challenged with keeping the empire unified. He recognized
the value of religion in uniting his empire. This was, in fact, one of his
primary motivations in accepting and sanctioning the Christian religion
(which, by this time, had drifted far from the teachings of Jesus Christ and
the apostles and was Christian in name only).
But now Constantine faced a new challenge. Religion researcher Karen
Armstrong explains in A History of God that one of the first problems
that had to be solved was the doctrine of God ... a new danger arose from
within which split Christians into bitterly warring camps (1993, p. 106).
Scott Ashley
This was the setting in which the doctrine of the Trinity emerged. In
those early decades after Jesus Christs ministry, death and resurrection,
and spanning the next few centuries, various ideas sprang up as to His
exact nature. Was He man? Was He God? Was He God appearing as a
man? Was He an illusion? Was He a mere man who became God? Was
He created by God the Father, or did He exist eternally with the Father?
All of these ideas had their proponents. The unity of belief of the original Church was lost as new beliefs, many borrowed or adapted from pagan
religions, replaced the teachings of Jesus and the apostles.
Let us be clear that when it comes to the intellectual and theological
debates in those early centuries that led to the formulation of the Trinity,
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The
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Father, Son and Holy Spirit were one but at the same time distinct from
each other.
The decision as to which view the church council would accept was to
a large extent arbitrary. Karen Armstrong explains in A History of God:
When the bishops gathered at Nicaea on May 20, 325, to resolve the crisis, very few would have shared Athanasiuss view of Christ. Most held a
position midway between Athanasius and Arius (p. 110).
As emperor, Constantine was in the unusual position of deciding church
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The
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doctrine even though he was not really a Christian. (The following year is
when he had both his wife and son murdered, as previously mentioned).
Historian Henry Chadwick attests, Constantine, like his father, worshipped the Unconquered Sun (The Early Church, 1993, p. 122). As to
the emperors embrace of Christianity, Chadwick admits, His conversion
should not be interpreted as an inward experience of grace ... It was a
military matter. His comprehension of Christian doctrine was never very
clear (p. 125).
Chadwick does say that Constantines deathbed baptism itself implies
no doubt about his Christian belief, it being common for rulers to put
off baptism to avoid accountability for things like torture and executing
criminals (p. 127). But this justification doesnt really help the case for the
emperors conversion being genuine.
Norbert Brox, a professor of church history, confirms that Constantine
was never actually a converted Christian: Constantine did not experience
any conversion; there are no signs of a change of faith in him. He never
said of himself that he had turned to another god ... At the time when
he turned to Christianity, for him this was Sol Invictus (the victorious sun
god) (A Concise History of the Early
Church, 1996, p. 48).
When it came to the Nicene Council,
The Encyclopaedia Britannica states:
Constantine himself presided, actively
guiding the discussions, and personally
proposed ... the crucial formula expressing the relation of Christ to God in the
creed issued by the council ... Overawed
by the emperor, the bishops, with two
exceptions only, signed the creed, many of
them much against their inclination (1971
edition, Vol. 6, Constantine, p. 386).
With the emperors approval, the Council rejected the minority view of Arius
and, having nothing definitive with which
This scene from a monastery
to replace it, approved the view of Athain Greece depicts Constantine,
in the center, presiding over the nasiusalso a minority view. The church
Council of Nicaea, with the con- was left in the odd position of officially
demned Arius, whose views
supporting, from that point forward, the
of God were rejected, humbled decision made at Nicaea to endorse a belief
in defeat at the bottom.
held by only a minority of those attending.
The groundwork for official acceptance of the Trinity was now laid
but it took more than three centuries after Jesus Christs death and
17
The Council of Nicaea did not end the controversy. Karen Armstrong
explains: Athanasius managed to impose
his theology on the delegates ... with the
emperor breathing down their necks ...
The show of agreement pleased Constantine, who had no understanding of the
theological issues, but in fact there was no
unanimity at Nicaea. After the council,
the bishops went on teaching as they had
before, and the Arian crisis continued for
another sixty years. Arius and his followers fought back and managed to regain
imperial favor. Athanasius was exiled no
fewer than five times. It was very difficult
to make his creed stick (pp. 110-111).
The ongoing disagreements were at
times violent and bloody. Of the aftermath
This 9th-century manuscript
of the Council of Nicaea, noted histoshows Constantine, enthroned
rian Will Durant writes, Probably more
Christians were slaughtered by Christians at upper left, overseeing the
burning of Arian books after the
in these two years (342-3) than by all the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325.
persecutions of Christians by pagans in the
history of Rome (The Story of Civilization, Vol. 4: The Age of Faith, 1950,
p. 8). Atrociously, while claiming to be Christian many believers fought
and slaughtered one another over their differing views of God!
Of the following decades, Professor Harold Brown, cited earlier, writes:
During the middle decades of this century, from 340 to 380, the history
of doctrine looks more like the history of court and church intrigues and
social unrest ... The central doctrines hammered out in this period often
appear to have been put through by intrigue or mob violence rather than
by the common consent of Christendom led by the Holy Spirit (p. 119).
Debate shifts to the nature of the Holy Spirit
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Sumeria
The universe was divided into three regions
each of which became the domain of a god. Anus
share was the sky. The earth was given to Enlil. Ea
became the ruler of the waters. Together they constituted the triad of the Great Gods (The Larousse
Encyclopedia of Mythology, 1994, pp. 54-55)
Babylonia
The ancient Babylonians recognised the doctrine of a trinity, or three persons in one godas
appears from a composite god with three heads
forming part of their mythology, and the use of
the equilateral triangle, also, as an emblem of
such trinity in unity (Thomas Dennis Rock, The
Mystical Woman and the Cities of the Nations,
1867, pp. 22-23).
India
Greece
In the Fourth Century B.C. Aristotle wrote: All
things are three, and thrice is all: and let us use
this number in the worship of the gods; for, as the
Pythagoreans say, everything and all things are
bounded by threes, for the end, the middle and
the beginning have this number in everything,
and these compose the number of the Trinity
(Arthur Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity,
1928, pp. 197-198).
Egypt
The Hymn to Amun decreed that No god
came into being before him (Amun) and that All
gods are three: Amun, Re and Ptah, and there is
no second to them. Hidden is his name as Amon,
he is Re in face, and his body is Ptah. ... This
is a statement of trinity, the three chief gods of
Egypt subsumed into one of them, Amon. Clearly,
the concept of organic unity within plurality got
an extraordinary boost with this formulation.
Theologically, in a crude form it came strikingly
close to the later Christian form of plural Trinitarian
monotheism (Simson Najovits, Egypt, Trunk of
the Tree, Vol. 2, 2004, pp. 83-84).
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The
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Professor Ryrie, also cited earlier, writes, In the second half of the
fourth century, three theologians from the province of Cappadocia in
eastern Asia Minor [today central Turkey] gave definitive shape to the doctrine of the Trinity (p. 65). They proposed an idea that was a step beyond
Athanasius viewthat God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit
were coequal and together in one being, yet also distinct from one another.
These menBasil, bishop of Caesarea, his brother Gregory, bishop of
Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzuswere all trained in Greek philosophy
(Armstrong, p. 113), which no doubt affected their outlook and beliefs
(see Greek Philosophys Influence on the Trinity Doctrine, beginning
on page 14).
In their view, as Karen Armstrong explains, the Trinity only made
sense as a mystical or spiritual experience ... It was not a logical or intellectual formulation but an imaginative paradigm that confounded reason.
Gregory of Nazianzus made this clear when he explained that contemplation of the Three in One induced a profound and overwhelming emotion
that confounded thought and intellectual clarity.
No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendor of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Three than I am carried back
into the One. When I think of any of the Three, I think of him as the
whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking
escapes me (p. 117). Little wonder that, as Armstrong concludes, For
many Western Christians ... the Trinity is simply baffling (ibid.).
would preside now? So it was that one Nectarius, an elderly city senator who had been a popular prefect in the city as a result of his patronage
of the games, but who was still not a baptized Christian, was selected ...
Nectarius appeared to know no theology, and he had to be initiated into the
required faith before being baptized and
consecrated (Freeman, pp. 97-98).
Bizarrely, a man who up to this point
wasnt a Christian was appointed to preside over a major church council tasked
with determining what it would teach
regarding the nature of God!
The Trinity becomes official doctrine
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The teaching of the three Cappadocian theologians made it possible for the
Council of Constantinople (381) to affirm
the divinity of the Holy Spirit, which up
to that point had nowhere been clearly
stated, not even in Scripture (The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism,
Theodosius I, depicted here in
God, p. 568).
a silver plate commemorating
The council adopted a statement that
the 10th anniversary of his reign
translates
into English as, in part: We
as Roman emperor, enforced
believe
in
one God, the Father Almighty,
the decision of the Council of
Constantinople establishing the Maker of heaven and earth, and of all
things visible and invisible; and in one
Trinity as official doctrine. All
other views of God were conLord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son
demned as heretical and would of God, begotten of the Father before
not be tolerated.
all ages ... And we believe in the Holy
Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with
the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by
the prophets ... The statement also affirmed belief in one holy, catholic [meaning in this context universal, whole or complete] and apostolic
Church ...
With this declaration in 381, which would become known as the NiceneConstantinopolitan Creed, the Trinity as generally understood today became
the official belief and teaching concerning the nature of God.
Theology professor Richard Hanson observes that a result of the councils decision was to reduce the meanings of the word God from a very
large selection of alternatives to one only, such that when Western man
today says God he means the one, sole exclusive [Trinitarian] God and
nothing else (Studies in Christian Antiquity, 1985, pp. 243-244).
22
Is God a Trinity?
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Is God a Trinity?
This, in brief, is the amazing story of how the doctrine of the Trinity
came to be introducedand how those who refused to accept it came to
be branded as heretics or unbelievers.
But should we really base our view of God on a doctrine that isnt
spelled out in the Bible, that wasnt formalized until three centuries after
the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles, that was debated and argued for
decades (not to mention for centuries since), that was imposed by religious
councils presided over by novices or nonbelievers and that was decided
by the method of trial and error?
Of course not. We should instead look to the Word of Godnot to
ideas of mento see how our Creator reveals Himself!
How
Is God Revealed in the Bible?
25
Inspired by God Himself, the Bible gives us the master key to knowing
26
Is God a Trinity?
Him: Scripture speaks of things beyond our seeing, things beyond our
hearing, things beyond our imagining, all prepared by God for those who
love him; and these are what God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit explores everything, even the depths of Gods own nature
(1 Corinthians 2:9-10, Revised English Bible, emphasis added throughout).
We need to knowfrom inspired Scripture itselfwho God is and how
He relates to and reveals Himself to us. Is God one person, two or three?
What did Jesus reveal to us about the nature of God when He continually
referred to a Being He called the Father? The answers will become
evident as we examine what the Scriptures actually tell us.
The first major point we need to understand is that, as stated earlier,
God reveals Himself through His Word. The Creator wants men and
women to understand Him as He reveals Himself in the Holy Scriptures.
Its important that we carefully consider this truth and not read our own
ideasor misconceptionsinto His Word.
In the Bibles first book we find a vital point regarding Gods nature.
Genesis 1 records many creative acts of God before He made mankind.
But notice verse 26: Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness.
Nowhere in the previous verses of Genesis did God use this phrase,
Let Us ... Why does Genesis now use this plural expression? Why have
Bible translators down through the centuries understood that the plural
was necessary in this verse?
Who is the Us mentioned here, and why is the plural Our also used
twice in this sentence? Throughout the first chapter of Genesis the Hebrew
word translated God is Elohim, a plural noun denoting more than one
entity. Why did our Creator purposefully use these plural expressions? Is
God more than one person? Who and what is He? Does this prove that
God is a Trinity, as many assume, or is it teaching us something else? How
can we understand?
We must let the Bible interpret the Bible
27
How
Is God Revealed in the Bible?
If you are with someone, then you are other than and distinct from that
person. The actual Greek here says the One called the Word was with the
God, while the Word Himself was also God. It does not say that the
Word was the God, for They are not the same entity. Rather, John clearly
describes two divine Beings in this passageOne called the God and
another referred to as God the Word, who was with Him.
In one sense we could refer to John 1:1 as the real beginning of the
Bible. It describes the nature of God as Creator even before the beginning
depicted in Genesis 1:1. As The New Bible Commentary: Revised states,
Johns distinctive contribution is to show that before the Creation the
Word existed (1970, p. 930).
Consider carefully the context of this crucial chapter of John. Verse 14
explains exactly whom this Word actually became: And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word was conceived in the flesh as a physical human beingJesus
Christ. Although fully human, He perfectly reflected Gods divine character. As Hebrews 1:2 describes it, Jesus was the exact representation of
[the Fathers] nature (Holman Christian Standard Bible). (To learn more
about Christs role as the Word of God, see In the Beginning Was the
Word beginning on page 36.)
Jesus Christthe Word of life
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How
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Is God a Trinity?
heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is
with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ (verse 3, NIV). The Holy
Scriptures reveal that God the Father and Jesus Christ form a divine family
(well discuss this biblical truth in greater detail in following chapters).
They have a distinct and loving family
relationship. Addressing the Father, Jesus
said, You loved me before the world
began (John 17:24, REB). He refers here
not to our limited human love but to the
divine love of the heavenly realm.
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30
Is God a Trinity?
people do not grasp the clear biblical fact that Jesus Christ is our Creator!
The book of Hebrews affirms this wonderful truth as well, stating that
God the Father has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He
has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds
(Hebrews 1:2). The abundant witness of the New Testament Scriptures
shows that God the Father created everything through the Wordthe One
who later became Jesus Christ. Thus, both divine Beings were intimately
involved in the creation.
The book of Hebrews presents Christ as the Being through whom
the Father brought the world of space and time into existence, and who
sustain[s] all things by his powerful word (verse 3, NRSV). Scripture,
therefore, reveals that Jesus not only created the universe, but He also
sustains it. He is clearly far greater than most have imagined!
Psalms and the divine family relationship
Key passages in the Psalms contain the sure testimony of God the
Father concerning His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. In them we find that the
Father testified in advance of the Words awesome future role.
The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 2: For to which of the angels did
He ever say: You are My Son, today I have begotten you? And again: I will
be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son? (Hebrews 1:5; compare
Psalm 2:7; 1 Chronicles 17:13). This was the prophetic destiny of the Word.
Psalm 45:6 also shows the Father testifying about the Son, as Hebrews
1:8 explains in quoting it: But to the Son He says: Your throne, O God, is
forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
Many who have read this chapter of Hebrews read right over this verse,
failing to grasp its enormous import. The Father called His Son, Jesus Christ,
God. Christ is not only the Son of God. He is God! He is a member of the
family of God. The Scriptures reveal God in terms of a family relationship
God the Father and Jesus the Son are together the God family!
We earlier saw from John 1:14 that the Word, Jesus Christ, became
flesh and dwelt among us ... as of the only begotten of the Father.
The Greek word monogenees, translated only begotten in this verse
and verse 18, confirms the family relationship between God the Father
and the One who became Jesus Christ.
Dr. Spiros Zodhiates, author of several books on the Greek language as
used in the Bible, explains: The word monogenees actually is a compound
of the word monos, alone, and the word genos, race, stock, family. Here
we are told that He who came to reveal GodJesus Christis of the same
family, of the same stock, of the same race as God ... There is ample
evidence in the Scriptures that the Godhead is a family ... (Was Christ
God? A Defense of the Deity of Christ, 1998, p. 21, emphasis added).
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How
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Jesus Christs existence before Abraham
32
Is God a Trinity?
the words of the prophets which are read sabbath by sabbath; indeed, they
fulfilled them by condemning him (Acts 13:27, REB).
Just as in the first century, relatively few people today truly compre-
one (verse 30). That is, the Father and Jesus were
both divine. As with declaring Himself the I AM in
John 8, there was no mistaking the intent of what
He said, because then the Jews took up stones
again to stone Him (John 10:31).
Jesus countered: Many good works I have
shown you from My Father. For which of those
works do you stone Me? The Jews responded,
For a good work we do not stone You, but for
blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make
Yourself God (verses 32-33).
The Jews understood perfectly well what Jesus
meant. He was telling them plainly of His divinity.
John 5 also records yet another instance in
which Jesus infuriated the Jews with His claims of
divinity. It happened just after He healed a crippled
man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath. The
Jews sought to kill Him because He did this on the
Sabbath, a day on which the law of God had stated
no work was to be done (which they misinterpreted
to include what Jesus was doing).
Jesus then made a statement the Jews could
take in only one way: My Father has been working
until now, and I have been working. Their response
to His words? Therefore the Jews sought all the
more to kill Him, because He not only broke the
Sabbath [according to their interpretation of it], but
also said that God was His Father, making Himself
equal with God (John 5:16-18).
Jesus was equating His works with Gods works
and claiming God as His Father in a special way
and of course, an actual son is the same kind of
being as his father.
How
Is God Revealed in the Bible?
33
hend who Jesus was, where He came from, what He is doing and what
He will yet do.
Later in John 8, the Jews gathered around Jesus asked Him, Who do
does anyone know the Father except the Son,
and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him
(Matthew 11:27).
Dr. William Lane Craig, writing in defense of
Christian belief, says this verse tells us that Jesus
claimed to be the Son of God in an exclusive
and absolute sense. Jesus says here that his
relationship of sonship to God is unique. And he
also claims to be the only one who can reveal the
Father to men. In other words, Jesus claims to be
the absolute revelation of God (Reasonable Faith,
1994, p. 246).
Christ claimed power to raise the dead
He further proclaimed: I am the way, the truth,
Jesus claimed yet another power that God alone and the life. No one comes to the Father except
possessedto raise the dead. Notice His state- through Me (John 14:6).
ments in John 5:25-29: Most assuredly, I say to
you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead Christs claims to hold peoples eternal destiny
On several occasions Jesus asserted that He
will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who
hear will live ... All who are in the graves will hear was the One through whom men and women could
His voice and come forththose who have done attain eternal life. This is the will of Him who sent
good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes
in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him
done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
There was no doubt about what He meant. He up at the last day (John 6:40; compare verses
added in verse 21, For as the Father raises the 47, 54). Again, as weve already seen, He not only
dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives says that people must believe in Him, but also that
life to whom He will. Before Jesus resurrected He will be the One to resurrect them at the end. No
Lazarus from the dead, He said to Lazarus sister mere man can take this role.
Dr. Craig adds: Jesus held that peoples attiMartha, I am the resurrection and the life (John
11:25). And He declared of each person the Father tudes toward himself would be the determining facdraws to Him in this age, I will raise him up at the tor in Gods judgment on the judgment day. Also I
say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him
last day (John 6:44; see verses 40, 54).
Compare this to 1 Samuel 2:6, which tells us the Son of Man also will confess before the angels
that the Lord [Yhwh ] kills and makes alive; He of God. But he who denies Me before men will be
brings down to the grave and brings up. Paul tells denied before the angels of God (Luke 12:8-9).
Make no mistake: if Jesus were not the divine
us in 2 Corinthians 1:9 that it is God who raises
son of God, then this claim could only be regarded
the dead.
as the most narrow and objectionable dogmatism.
Jesus special relationship with God the Father
For Jesus is saying that peoples salvation depends
Jesus understood Himself to be unique in His on their c onfession to Jesus himself (p. 251).
The conclusion is inescapable: Jesus proclose relationship with God the Father in that He
was the only One who could reveal the Father. All claimed Himself to be divine along with the Father
things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and to possess authority and prerogatives that
and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor belong only to God!
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How
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Is God a Trinity?
You make Yourself out to be? (verse 53). They simply had no idea of
the real identity of the One with whom they were speaking. It is the same
today. Few people really understand the true origins of Jesus Christ.
He patiently explained, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day,
and he saw it and was glad
(verse 56). But how was this
possible? The patriarch Abraham lived around 2,000 years
before Jesus birth. So those who
heard Him challenged, You are
not yet fifty years old, and have
you seen Abraham? (verse 57).
To this question Jesus gave a
stunning response: Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM (verse 58).
The Bible reveals that the divine Being
who later became Jesus Christ was the
We should pause for a
One who created all things and intermoment to digest what Jesus
acted with human beings as the God of
said.
the Old Testament.
He was declaring that His
existence preceded that of Abraham. Moreover, the phrase I AM was
a well-known title of divinity to the Jews. This goes back to Moses first
encounter with God at the burning bush more than 14 centuries earlier.
Corbis
When God on that occasion told Moses he was sending him to lead
the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, Moses was concerned about how
the Israelites would receive him and the commission God gave him. So
he asked God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to
them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me,
What is His name? What shall I say to them? (Exodus 3:13).
Observe the Creators reply: And God said to Moses, I AM WHO
I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM
has sent me to you (Exodus 3:14).
Note also the next verse: Moreover God said to Moses, Thus you shall
say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This
is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations (verse 15).
As is common in most English translations throughout the Old Testament,
the word Lord here with capital letters is substituted for the Hebrew
consonants Y-H-W-H (commonly known as the Tetragrammaton, meaning four letters). No one today knows for certain how to pronounce this
35
As the great I AM, Jesus Christ was the guiding Rock who was with
the children of Israel in the wilderness when they left Egypt (see Deuteronomy 32:4). Paul wrote: Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be
unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the
sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the
same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank
of that spiritual Rock that followed [accompanied] them, and that Rock
was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).
The I AM of the Old Testament is further described as abounding in
goodness and truth (Exodus 34:6). Similarly, the New Testament tells
us that Jesus was full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
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Is God a Trinity?
angels of God, there are a few (Genesis 16:1013; 22:11-12; Exodus 3:2-6; Judges 13:3-22)
where One called the Angel of the Lord is also
identified as the Lord. But how can an angel of
God be God Himself? This is evidently the same
figure referred to as the Angel of His Presence
in Isaiah 63:9, as well as the Angel God sent to
lead the Israelites through the wilderness to the
Promised Land (Exodus 14:19; 23:20).
The word Angel here can cause confusion, as
it is typically used to refer to created spirit beings
who are lesser than God. However, the Old Testament Hebrew word from which the word angel is
translated, malak, simply means messenger, as
does the New Testament Greek equivalent angelos
(from which the English word angel is derived).
In Hebrew and Greek, those words can mean
either a human or spirit messenger. We must
look at the context to determine which is meant.
In this case, we have the Messenger of God who
is also God. Clearly, there is only one entity fitting
this description. It is an exact parallel to the Word
of God who is also God.
Consider an Old Testament prophecy declared
in the New Testament to refer to John the Baptist
and Jesus Christ. God said: Behold, I send
My messenger [malak, here John the Baptist],
and he will prepare the way before Me. And the
Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to
His temple, even the Messenger [malak] of the
covenant [that is, Jesus Christ, Mediator of the
New Covenant], in whom you delight. Behold,
He is coming (Malachi 3:1; compare Matthew
11:9-11; Mark 1:1-2; Hebrews 12:24).
The Lord here is God, for He comes to His
temple. Yet He is also a Messengera malak, the
term elsewhere rendered angel. Jesus is thus the
Lord God. Yet He is also the Messenger of God the
Father. And Christs role as Messenger has great
bearing on His distinction as the Word of God.
How
Is God Revealed in the Bible?
37
38
How
Is God Revealed in the Bible?
Is God a Trinity?
There are, it should be noted, places in the Old Testament where Yhwh
clearly refers to God the Father. For instance, in Psalm 110:1, King David
stated, The Lord [Yhwh] said to My Lord ... Yhwh here is the Father
speaking to Davids Lord, the One who became Jesus Christ. Often, however, the name Yhwh refers to the One who became Christand sometimes it applies to both the Father and Christ together, just as the name
God often does.
Consider that except for Jesus, no human being has ever seen the Father
(John 1:18; 5:37; 6:46; 1 John 4:12). Yet Abraham, Jacob, Moses and others all saw God (Genesis 18; 32:30; Exodus 24:9-11; 33:17-23). So the
Yhwh, the I AM, the Word, who later became Jesus Christ was the One
they saw. It was He who dealt directly with human beings as God in Old
Testament times.
Jesus Christ later died for our sins and became the ultimate mediator
between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), a role He had already partially
fulfilled as the preexistent Word before His human birth.
So the Word was indeed the God of the Old Testamentand yet the
Father fulfilled this role in a very real sense as well. For Jesus dealt with
mankind on the Fathers behalf as His Spokesman (compare John 8:28;
12:49-50; and again, see In the Beginning Was the Word, beginning on
page 36). Moreover, in many passages in the Old Testament it can be difficult to distinguish between these two great personages, whereas the New
Testament is usually clear in this respect.
Of course, since Jesus came to reveal the Father (Matthew 11:27), the
logical conclusion is that the
Father was not generally known
by those in Old Testament times
except for a few of the Hebrew
patriarchs and prophets. King
David, for example, is one who
understood.
Quoted in part earlier,
Hebrews 1:1-2 states: God, who
at various times and in various
ways spoke in time past to the
Scripture describes Jesus Christ existing
fathers by the prophets, has in
as God with the Father before His human
these last days spoken to us by
His Son, whom He has appointed birth. The evening before His crucifixion,
heir of all things, through whom He prayed to be restored to the glory He
had earlier shared with the Fatherwhich
also He made the worlds.
came to pass after His resurrection.
In this opening passage of
the book of Hebrews the clear implication is that the Father is the moving
force behind the whole Old Testament. In context, verse 2 interprets verse
1. Though God the Father is the prime mover behind the Hebrew Bible, it
is through Jesus Christ that He created the entire universe.
Also, the vital principle of the Bible interpreting the Bible helps us to
understand the intent of Hebrews 1:1 in the light of other scriptures. Just
as God made the worlds through the agency of the preexistent Word, Jesus
Christ, and created all things by Him (Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16; John
1:3), so He has dealt with man through the same agency, Christ the Word.
Designpics
39
Jesus Christ today is the mediator between God the Father and man.
But to perfectly fulfill that crucial role He had to have been both God and
man. He was truly a man in every sense of that word or we have no salvation from our sins. The apostle Paul calls Him the Man Christ Jesus
(1 Timothy 2:5), as does the apostle Peter (Acts 2:22).
Paul tells us that we should have the same humble, serving attitude of
Jesus Christ, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard
equality with God a thing to be grasped [i.e., tightly held on to], but emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness
40
Is God a Trinity?
How
Is God Revealed in the Bible?
41
42
Is God a Trinity?
Jesus Christ is called the Son of Man more than 80 times in the New
Testament. It was the term He most commonly used in referring to Himself.
Christ repeatedly referred to Himself as the Son of Man in connection
with His sufferings and sacrificial death for the sins of mankind (Matthew
17:22; 26:45; Mark 9:31; 14:41). Although of divine origin, He deliberately identified with our human plightthe sorrows and sufferings of the
human race. The prophet Isaiah foresaw Him as a Man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).
Sympathizing with our human frailties and difficulties, Jesus tells us:
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My
burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
He also called Himself the Son of Man when referring to His role as
the future Ruler of humanity in the coming Kingdom of God (Matthew
19:28). He even used it when He described Himself as the Lord of the
Sabbath, explaining how the seventh-day Sabbath should be observed
with mercy and compassion (Mark 2:27-28; Matthew 12:8; Luke 6:5).
How
Is God Revealed in the Bible?
43
Then, when He came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked
His disciples, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? (Matthew
16:13). They replied by recounting several commonly held but erroneous
beliefs about Jesus identity. Simon Peter responded by saying, You are
the Christ [the Messiah], the Son of the living God (verse 16).
Jesus observed that the Father Himself had revealed this wonderful
truth to Peter (verse 17). And all of His apostles came to recognize the
same truth, which is restated elsewhere in the New Testament (Matthew
14:33; John 20:31; Romans 1:3-4).
Indeed, while Jesus was human in the fullest sense, He was also more
than simply humanfor He was, in fact, the divine Son of God with all
that name implies. Indeed, as we have seen, He was the Creator God come
in the flesh. And after His human life was over, He returned to the divine
glory He shared with the Father from eternity past (John 17:5). (To learn
much more about who Jesus was and the events of His life, death and
he Father and Jesus have, from the beginning, planned to increase Their kind. The
God kind is a family! It is headed by the Father
and now consists of the Father and the Son,
Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3:14-15 mentions the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named.
The Father and Jesus Christ existed from
the beginning and always will exist. It is Their
plan and desire to add to Their kindbringing
many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). Just as
all life was made to reproduce after its own
kind as stated throughout Genesis 1, so God
patterned man after the God kind. This is the
ultimate meaning of verse 26, where God says,
Let Us make man in Our image, according to
Our likeness.
This is a two-stage process. First, God
made mankind physical, of the dust of the
earth. Then, through conversion and faith in
Christ and obedience to Gods spiritual law
of love, each person becomes spiritually a
new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians
4:24). This leads to the final birth of new
children into the divine family, who are then
like Christ, Himself the firstborn Son of God
44
Is God a Trinity?
How
Is God One?
45
Lets go back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. There, after the
creation of Adam and Eve, we see the institution of the marriage relationship: Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined
to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). A couple
becomes one flesh in a marital sexual union. But there is another important metaphorical meaning as well. Though two separate and distinct
beings, in this context the two become one.
Some 4,000 years later Jesus reiterated this concept when He said,
regarding marriage, that the two shall become one flesh; so then they
are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together,
let not man separate (Mark 10:8-9). In marriage the two become one
when joined in sexual union and in the covenant relationship they share.
But they still remain two separate individuals, still one male and one
femalejoined together in marriage as one family unit.
Of course, this oneness is not complete or total. Yet in a physical sense
an obvious oneness is reached when man and woman come together at the
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Is God a Trinity?
moment of conceiving a child. As one science book put it: Human life
begins in ... cooperation of the most intimate sort. The two cells wholly
merge. They combine their genetic material. Two very different beings
become one. The act of making a human being involves ... cooperation so
perfect that the partners separate identities vanish (Carl Sagan and Ann
Druyan, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, 1992, p. 199).
The separate DNA substances of two distinct human beings combine
How
Is God One?
47
at conception to form a new, unique human being, one different from all
other persons.
How wonderful are the things of God! How great are His purposes for
the human family! Understanding marriage and the family helps us grasp
important aspects of the Kingdom of God. (To learn more, be sure to
download or request our free booklet Marriage and Family: The Missing
Dimension at www.GNmagazine.org/booklets.)
chapters-long discussion of the benefits and
blessings of wholeheartedly following God and
avoiding the idolatrous practices of the people
who were to be driven out of the Promised Land.
Jesus Himself quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-5 as
the first and great commandment in the law
(Matthew 22:36-38; Mark 12:28-30).
Another meaning of the Hebrew word echad,
alone, fits this context as well. That is, the true
God alone was to be Israels God; the Israelites
were to have no other.
This may be how a scribe who heard Jesus
quote the verse in Mark 12:29-30 understood it.
The scribe responded in verse 32 (NRSV): You
are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is
one [Greek heis, which corresponds to echad in its
multiple meanings], and besides him there is no
otherwhich seems to indicate that this is what
the scribe understood the word rendered one to
mean in the expression (in essence, alone).
This would not rule out Jesus Christ from
being God along with the Father. Rather, there is
no other God apart from the true Godthat is,
outside the God family or God kind now consisting of two divine Beings, the Father and the
Son. In short, the God family alone is God.
Another view of the Shema is based on the
root word from which echad is derivedachad.
This word means to unify or go one way or
other (Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the
Bible). In other words, echad can also mean in
unity or a group united as one.
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Is God a Trinity?
49
In John 17 Jesus prayed to the Father, And this is eternal life, that they
[Christs disciples] may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom You have sent (verse 3). Jesus thus distinguishes between God
the Father and Himself. They are not the same being. Nevertheless, They
share perfect union and oneness. (For more on this verse and a parallel passage, see There Is One God, the Father ... and One Lord, Jesus
Christ, beginning on page 40.)
Continuing in this incredible prayer spoken shortly before His cruci-
he following seven scriptures show the fallacy of claiming that the Father and the Son
are one being as the Trinity teaching asserts.
How can one reconcile belief in the Trinity with
these simple questions?
Hebrews 1:5 tells us that Jesus was begotten by His Father. Did He beget Himself?
In Matthew 22:44, the Father said Jesus
would sit at His right hand until His enemies
were made His footstool. Was Jesus to sit at
His own right hand?
In Matthew 24:36, when Jesus told His disciples that no one knows the day or hour of His
return but the Father only, did He really know
but made up an excuse to not tell them?
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Is God a Trinity?
fixion, Christ said regarding His followers, Holy Father, protect them in
your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are
one (verse 11, NRSV). Earlier He had said, I and My Father are one
(John 10:30).
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Is God One?
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Jesus Christ tells us we are to live by every word of God (Luke 4:4).
Before any of the books of the New Testament were written, the Hebrew
Scriptureswhat we call the Old Testamentwere the only recorded
word of God available. Often the Old Testament can clear our foggy
vision and help us understand the spiritual intent of the New. After all, we
should understand that all the books of the Bible are the revealed Word of
God, and are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, [and] for
instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
Consider a seldom-read passage back in the book of Judges that illustrates how oneness can mean unity: So all the children of Israel came
out, from Dan to Beersheba, as well as from the land of Gilead, and the
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Is God a Trinity?
We see, then, that Scripture reveals two separate, distinct persons, both
spirit, yet one in unity, belief, direction and purposemembers of the
same divine family. I and My Father are one, said Jesus (John 10:30).
When we understand what the Bible teaches, we see that there is only
one God, just as there is only one human raceone extended family
descended from Adam of nearly 7 billion individuals. The one divine
familythe family of Godhas multiple members, with all of humanity
receiving the opportunity to become members of it along with the Father
and Christ.
The traditional human family is a microcosm of that one great divine
family (compare Romans 1:20). If we comprehend this marvelous, wondrous biblical principle, we should be reflecting our ultimate destiny in our
marriages, other family relationships and everyday lives. We should strive
to reflect the love and unity of the divine familyGod the Father and His
Son Jesusin our human families.
Clearly, then, we must let the Bible interpret what it means in referring to the one God. God the Father and Jesus Christ, along with the Holy
Spirit, are not one single being, as Trinitarian teaching maintains. Rather,
the Father and Christ are distinct divine Beings who together are one
Godthe one God meaning the one God family that is one, united, in
harmonized will and purpose. We consider the nature and role of the Holy
Spirit in the next two chapters.
Is
the Holy Spirit a Person?
53
n preceding chapters we saw that the teaching of the Trinity, asserting that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, was foreign to the writers
of the Bible and originated several centuries after the New Testament
was completed. How, then, does the Bible define the Holy Spirit if it
is not a person?
The word spirit is translated from the Hebrew ruach and the Greek
pneuma, both words also denoting breath or wind, an invisible force. (The
English ghost at one time had this meaning, which is why its used in
older Bible translations.) Scripture says that God is Spirit (John 4:24). Yet
we are also told that God has a Spiritthe Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit.
So again, just what is the Holy Spirit?
The power of the Highest
Rather than describing the Holy Spirit as a distinct person or entity, the
Bible most often refers to it as and connects it with Gods divine power
(Zechariah 4:6; Micah 3:8). Jewish scholars, examining the references to
it in the Old Testament Scriptures, have never defined the Holy Spirit as
anything but the power of God.
In the New Testament, Paul referred to it as the spirit of power, love and
a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Informing Mary that Jesus would be supernaturally conceived in her womb, an angel told her, The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and the divine messenger described this Spirit to her as
the power of the Highest [which] will overshadow you (Luke 1:35).
Jesus began His ministry in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14). He
told His followers, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you (Acts 1:8).
Peter relates that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit
and with power (Acts 10:38). This was the same power that enabled
Christ to perform many mighty miracles during His ministry. Likewise,
Jesus worked through the apostle Paul in mighty signs and wonders, by
the power of the Spirit of God (Romans 15:19).
Confronted with such scriptures, even the New Catholic Encyclopedia
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Is
the Holy Spirit a Person?
Is God a Trinity?
admits: The OT [Old Testament] clearly does not envisage Gods spirit as a
person ... Gods spirit is simply Gods power. If it is sometimes represented
as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly
... The majority of NT [New Testament] texts reveal Gods spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the
spirit and the power of God (1965, Vol. 13, Spirit of God, pp. 574-576).
The reference work A Catholic Dictionary similarly acknowledges, On
the whole the New Testament, like the Old, speaks of the spirit as a divine
energy or power (William Addis and Thomas Arnold, 2004, Trinity,
Holy, p. 827).
Gods Word shows that the Holy Spirit is the very nature, presence and
expression of Gods power actively working in His servants (2 Peter 1:4;
Galatians 2:20). Indeed, it is through His Spirit that God is present everywhere at once throughout the universe and affects it at will (Psalm 139:7-10).
Again and again the Scriptures depict the Holy Spirit as the power of
God. Furthermore, it is also shown to be the mind of God and the very
essence and life force through which the Father begets human beings as His
spiritual children. The Holy Spirit is not God, but is rather a vital aspect of
Godthe agency through which the Father and Christ both work.
In its article about the Holy Spirit, The Anchor Bible Dictionary
describes it as the manifestation of divine presence and power perceptible
especially in prophetic inspiration (Vol. 3, 1992, p. 260).
Repeatedly the Scriptures reveal that God imparted divine inspiration
to His prophets and servants through the Holy Spirit. Peter noted that
prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).
Paul wrote that Gods plan for humanity had been revealed by the
Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets (Ephesians 3:5) and that his
own teachings were inspired by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13). Paul
further explains that it is through His Spirit that God has revealed to true
Christians the things He has prepared for those who love Him (verses
9-16). Working through the Spirit, God the Father is the revealer of truth
to those who serve Him.
Jesus told His followers that the Holy Spirit, which the Father would
send, will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things
that I said to you (John 14:26). It is through Gods Spirit within us that
we gain spiritual insight and understanding. Indeed, we come to receive
the very mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)also referred to as the
mind of the Spirit (Romans 8:27).
Jesus had this spiritual comprehension in abundance. As the Messiah,
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compared to human beings in Their form and shape, the Holy Spirit is consistently represented, by various symbols and manifestations, in a
completely different mannersuch as breath (John 10:22), wind (Acts 2:2),
fire (verse 3), water (John 4:14; 7:37-39), oil (Psalm 45:7; compare Acts
10:38; Matthew 25:1-10), a dove (Matthew 3:16) and an earnest, or down
payment, on eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14, KJV).
To say the least, these depictions are difficult to understand if the Holy
Spirit is a person!
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In Matthew 1:20 we find further proof that the Holy Spirit is not a
distinct entity, but Gods divine power. Here we read that Jesus was
conceived by the Holy Spirit. However, Jesus continually prayed to and
addressed God the Father as His Father and not the Holy Spirit (Matthew 10:32-33; 11:25-27; 12:50). He never represented the Holy Spirit
as His Father! Clearly, the Holy Spirit was the agency or power through
which the Father begot Jesus as His Sonnot a separate person or being
altogether.
Pauls example and teaching were in line with Christs
If God were a Trinity, surely Paul, who was taught directly by the
resurrected Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-12) and who wrote much of the
theological underpinnings of the early Church, would have comprehended
and taught this concept. Yet we find no such teaching in His writings.
Moreover, Pauls standard greeting in his letter to the churches, as well
as individuals to whom he wrote, consistently mentions God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet in each of his greetings he never mentions
the Holy Spirit! (The same can also be said of Peter in the salutations of
both his epistles.)
The same greeting, with only minor variations, appears in every epistle
that bears Pauls name. Notice how consistent he is in not including the
Holy Spirit in his greetings:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(Romans 1:7).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(1 Corinthians 1:3).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(2 Corinthians 1:2).
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ
(Galatians 1:3).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(Ephesians 1:2).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(Philippians 1:2).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(Colossians 1:2).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(1 Thessalonians 1:1).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(2 Thessalonians 1:1-2).
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord
(1 Timothy 1:2).
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Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord
(2 Timothy 1:2).
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
our Savior (Titus 1:4).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
(Philemon 3).
The Holy Spirit is always left out of these greetingsan unbelievable
and inexplicable oversight if the Spirit were indeed a person or entity
coequal with God the Father and Christ!
This is even more surprising when we consider that the congregations
to which Paul wrote had many gentile members from polytheistic backgrounds who had formerly worshipped numerous gods. Pauls epistles
record no attempt on his part to explain the Trinity or Holy Spirit as a
divine person equal with God the Father and Jesus Christ.
In all of Pauls writings, only in 2 Corinthians 13:14 is the Holy Spirit
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mentioned along with the Father and Jesus Christ in such expressions, and
there only in connection with the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (NIV)
in which believers sharenot in any sort of theological statement on the
nature of God. The point Paul makes here is that Gods Spirit is the unifying agent that brings us together in godly, righteous fellowship, not only
with one another but with the Father and Son.
Yet here, too, Gods Spirit is not spoken of as a person. Notice that Paul
writes that our fellowship is of the Holy Spirit, not with the Holy Spirit. As
1 John 1:3 tells us, Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son Jesus Christthe Holy Spirit is not mentioned.
(For other verses that supposedly support the existence of the Trinity, see
What About Passages that Prove the Trinity? starting on page 62.)
Jesus likewise never spoke of the Holy Spirit as a divine third person.
Instead, in numerous passages He spoke only of the relationship between
God the Father and Himself (Matthew 26:39; Mark 13:32; 15:34; John
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5:18, 22; etc.). The Holy Spirit as a person is conspicuously absent from
Christs teaching in general. Of particular interest in this regard are His
many statements about Himself and the Father, especially when He never
makes similar statements about Himself and the Holy Spirit.
contradict the Scriptures! Our beliefs must rest solidly on the teachings of the
Holy Bible. Jesus said, [Gods] word is truth (John 17:17).
What about scriptures describing actions of the Holy Spirit?
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Some scriptural passages seem to describe the Holy Spirit as apparently engaging in personal
activity. Does this mean
that the Holy Spirit is a
distinct person?
While at first this
might seem to indicate
as much, it doesnt really
prove that at all. In the
languages of Bible times,
nonpersonal things were
Many believe the Holy Spirit is a distinct person
sometimes described in
because the Bible sometimes speaks of it in ways
personal ways and as havthat seem to describe personal actions. But this
ing personlike activities.
proves nothing, as Scripture personifies mounFor example, in Genesis
tains as singing, rivers as clapping their hands,
the skies and rain as praising God, and trees as
4:10 God says to Cain:
talking. Clearly none of these are personsjust
What have you done?
as the Holy Spirit is not a person, either.
The voice of your brothers blood cries out to Me from the ground. Here Abels shed blood is
described as having a voice that cries out from the ground. Yet clearly
this is figurative language, as blood has no voice and cannot speak.
Similarly, in the book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified as calling
aloud and crying out (Proverbs 1:20-21). Proverbs 8 describes wisdom as
crying out, standing on a high hill, calling to men, speaking, having lips
and a mouth, loving and being loved, having children and having accompanied and rejoiced with God. Yet obviously wisdom is not a person and
does none of these things in a literal sense!
Likewise, Psalm 65:13 describes valleys shouting for joy and singing.
Psalm 96:11-12 attributes emotions to the heavens, earth and fields. Psalm
98:8 says the rivers clap their hands. Psalm 148:4-5 describes the skies and
rain praising God.
Isaiah 3:26 says the gates of the city of Jerusalem will lament and mourn.
Isaiah 14:8 speaks of cypress trees rejoicing and cedar trees talking. Isaiah
35:1 ascribes emotions to the wilderness and says the desert will rejoice. Isaiah
44:23 and 49:13 describe mountains, forests, trees and the heavens singing.
Isaiah 55:12 says that hills will break into singing and trees will clap
their hands. In Habakkuk 2:11 stones and timbers are described as talking
to each other.
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We find similar personifications of nonpersonal things in the New Testament as well. Matthew 11:19 speaks of wisdom having children. Romans
6 says that sin enslaves and reigns over human beings (verses 6, 12, 16). In
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The
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Is God a Trinity?
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None of us can overcome our sins and shortcomings and fully obey
God without His divine help. Even if we could by our own will alter our
actions, only God can change our hearts.
This is why Paul appealed to members of the church in Rome not to be
conformed to this world, but [to] be transformed by the renewing of your
mind (Romans 12:1-2) through the power of Gods Spirit. That Spirit is
the power God uses to transform our lives and renew our minds!
Earlier in this epistle, in chapter 8, Paul helps us understand how the
Holy Spirit works in the life of a Christian. In verse 14 he writes that as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Here we see
that, to be considered Gods children, we must be led by the Spirit of God.
Paul continues this same thought in verse 9, dogmatically stating that if
you do not have Gods Spirit, also referred to here as Christs Spirit, dwelling in you, you are not His. This is why it is vital that we repent and be
baptizedso we can surrender our lives to God and receive the gift of His
Spirit to work in and transform our lives!
Paul elsewhere writes that you have Christ in you if you are a Christian (Colossians 1:27). It is through the power and influence of Gods Spirit
that we allow Christ to live in us.
After he had received Gods Spirit, Paul described his new outlook
on life: I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved
me, and gave himself for me
(Galatians 2:20, KJV).
Symbolically buried with
Jesus in the watery grave of
baptism, Paul now lived a life
Scripture describes the Holy Spirit primar- that was no longer his own.
ily as the power of Godthe power by
He described his transformed
which Jesus Christ and the apostles perlife as one of allowing Christ
formed great miracles such as healing
to live again within him. This
the sick and restoring sight to the blind.
is how we please Godby
emulating His Son. Paul urged other believers, Imitate me, just as I also
imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). He tells us, Let the same mind be in
you that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5, NRSV).
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not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed
them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the
deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except [by]
the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of
God except [by] the Spirit of God.
Without Gods Spirit a person cannot understand Gods divinely
expressed Word and will, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned (verse 14).
The Holy Spirit makes overcoming possible. Nothing is too difficult
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for us with the power of God working in our lives. Romans 8:26 tells us
that Gods Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. Paul, who wrote the letter to
the Romans, speaks for all of us when he said, I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).
Jesus promises Christians, With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27). The Christian life is to be one of overcoming.
We must realize God doesnt want us to remain just as we were when He
called us. Instead, as we earlier read, we must not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).
Christianity is a lifetime of overcoming and growingof transforming our
up zeal and renew our dedication and commitment to Him. King David wrote that he humbled
[him]self with fasting (Psalm 35:13). Fasting is
abstaining from food and drink as a means of
getting our minds back on the reality that we are
not self-sufficient. Fasting helps us realize just
how fragile we are and how much we depend on
things beyond ourselves. And its an exercise in
denying ourselves for Gods higher purposes.
The Bible records that great men of faith such
as Moses, Elijah, Daniel, Paul and Jesus Himself
fasted to draw closer to God (Exodus 34:28;
1 Kings 19:8; Daniel 9:3; 10:2-3; 2 Corinthians
11:27; Matthew 4:2).
Jesus was approached with the question,
Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast? He
responded: Can the friends of the bridegroom
fast while the bridegroom is with them? As
long as they have the bridegroom with them
they cannot fast. But the days will come when
the bridegroom will be taken away from them,
and then they will fast in those days (Mark
2:18-20).
Jesus knew that His true disciples, once He
was no longer there in the flesh with them, at
times would need to fast to regain and renew
their zeal to serve Him. They would need to stir
up the gift of the Holy Spirit within them.
James tells us, Draw near to God and He
will draw near to you (James 4:8). Through
constant prayer and occasional fasting we can do
this. We can make it our practice to stir up and
rekindle the Spirit of God within us!
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Is God a Trinity?
He told His disciples, If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just
as I have kept My Fathers commandments
and abide in His love (John 15:10). Christ is
forever obedient to the Father, and we are to
likewise be obedient to the Father and Christ
as an expression of our love for Them. (By the
way, this contradicts the Trinitarian idea that
there can be no relationship of command and
obedience within the Godhead, as that implies
distinct beings with distinct wills.)
Upon repentance, we can begin to exhibit
godly love, which is poured out in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). God
wants us to learn to think as He thinks and do
as He does.
In exercising this kind of love, we express the
image of God (reflecting His character), even
though we are still human. Paul encourages
us to let this mind be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5), who perfectly
personified Gods love to the point of giving His
own life for us.
One of the Bibles best-known passages tells
us that God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life (John 3:16). God not only wants to grant
us the priceless gift of eternal life, but He also
wants to share all things with us in His divine
family (Hebrews 2:6-8; Romans 8:16-17). Time
and time again the Scriptures reveal that God
perfectly personifies love.
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Paul explains this new creation by contrasting the old self, which is
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being corrupted by its deceitful desires, with the new self, created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24, NIV).
Paul is describing a much-needed spiritual transformation in people. It
first involves a change in a persons nature and character. This is followed
by the resurrectiona total metamorphosis into a glorified spirit being
with eternal life.
God is accomplishing this transformation through the power of the
Holy Spirit. A biblical term for this spiritual transformation is salvation.
Paul describes those who will
receive salvation as the children of God: The Spirit itself
[that is, Gods Holy Spirit]
beareth witness with our spirit
[our individual human spirit],
that we are the children of
God: and if children, then
heirs; heirs of God, and jointheirs with Christ; if so be that
we suffer with him, that we
may be also glorified together
The human family was designed as a lesser (Romans 8:16-17, King James
model or type of the greater spiritual reality
that God is a family of which Jesus Christ Version).
Can we start to grasp the
is the firstborn among many brethren.
significance of Pauls inspired
statement? It explains why we are here, the very reason for our existence,
why we were born. It gives meaning to life itself. It explains why God
wants all people to come to the knowledge of the truth. God, the Scriptures tell us, is creating a familyHis own family. We have the priceless
opportunity to be a part of that family, the family of God!
That family relationshipour becoming children of God the Father
is the heart and core of Gods incredible plan for humanity!
From the beginning this purpose has been clearly stated by God. Note
again the words of Genesis 1, quoted earlier: Then God said, Let Us make
man in Our image, according to Our likeness ... So God created man in
His own image... male and female He created them (verses 26-27). Men
and women are created in Gods image and likeness, to be like Him.
This language concerns family. Consider that it was after creating plants
and animals to reproduce each according to its kind that God said, Let
Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness (verse 26). This
shows that man was created according to the God kind.
Indeed, to help us understand the parallel with God creating man in His
image and likeness, Genesis 5:3 says that the first man Adam later begot
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a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. So God
was essentially reproducing Himself through humanity. Well see more
about this shortly.
God makes it clear that His family includes people who are now
physical men and women, both sons and daughters: For you are all sons
of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave
nor free, there is neither male
nor female; for you are all one
in Christ Jesus (Galatians
3:26-28).
The Bible often collectively
refers to physical children of
both genders as sons because
that was the custom at the time
Just as human children are like their physical
the Bible was written. That
custom has continued in many parents, our destiny as children of God is to
be just like our spiritual Heavenly Father
languages over the centuries.
imbued with awesome power and glory as
In the Hebrew and Greek lanHis transformed children given eternal life.
guages, in which the Bible was
originally written, sons was used to refer to descendants generally.
We similarly use the words mankind and brethren in a collective sense to
include both sexes.
God also tells us, I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons
and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (2 Corinthians 6:18). Just as both
men and women are Gods children through physical creation, so both can
be Gods children through spiritual means.
But when God calls us His children and instructs us to call Him our
Father, is this meant in a real sense? Is God actually engendering a family of others like Himself through a process of reproduction? Or is this
meant in the same sense as God being a Father to the human race through
creation?
By act of creation God is also a Father to the angels, calling them sons
of God in Job 38:7. But there is a more important sense in which He desires
to be a Father to human beingsa privilege not bestowed on the angels.
We can start to see this in the book of Hebrews: For to which of the
angels did He ever say, You are My Son, today I have begotten You?
And again: I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son?
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Gods
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standing (see our free booklet What Is Your Destiny? to learn more).
We will be like Jesus Christ
Gods
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(John 1:1). Nevertheless, the New Testament declares that Jesus is, as
weve also seen, the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29) and
makes clear that His followers are also the sons of God.
The apostle John explains what this ultimately means: Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called
children of God! ... Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not
yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:1-3).
With our finite human minds and limited understanding, we cannot
know all there is to know about God. Nor can we fully comprehend what
it means to be divine, glorified spirit beings as God the Father and Jesus
Christ are now. But we do have this promisethat human beings inducted
into the family God is creating will ultimately be glorified spirit beings
like the resurrected Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20-21), who reigns over the
universe in His glorified state at the right hand of God the Father!
This is what is meant by Daniels description of righteous people in the
future shin[ing] ... like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:2-3, NRSV).
Human beings resurrected to eternal life will be like the glorified Jesus Christ!
But what does this really mean? Lets grasp some crucial points. Consider that human children are like their parents and like their brothers and
sisters. They are all the same kind of beingshuman beings. In the same
way, ultimately Gods children will be like Him and like Jesus Christ their
divine Brother.
Jesus Christ, God the Son, is like God the Fatherwith the same kind
of glory and power. These passages of Scripture tell us that Gods other
children, glorified when resurrected, will be like the Father and Christ!
They will be the same kind of beings the Father and Christ aredivine
beings, as hard as that may be to believe!
The awesome potential of any person, as it is presented to us in Gods
Word, seems so incredible that most people cannot grasp this biblical truth
when they first read it. Although it is plainly stated in the Bible, people usually read right over it. In fact, this awesome future is the whole purpose and
reason that God made mankind. It is why we were born, why we exist!
Sadly, belief in the Trinity blinds millions of people to this awe-inspiring
truth. The Trinity presents God as three divine persons who are simultaneously oneand as forever this closed group, no more and no less. This
unbiblical teaching obscures the awesome truth that God is expanding His
family! Now consisting of the Father and the Son, that family will expand
by, as Hebrews 2:10 tells us, bringing many sons to glory!
You are gods?
Lets get to the heart of this matter. The Jews of Jesus day accused
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entity. The offspring of cats are cats. The offspring of dogs are dogs. The
offspring of human beings are human beings. The offspring of God are, in
Christs own words, gods.
But we must be careful here. Human beings are not literally godsnot
yet, at any rate. Indeed, people initially are not literally even Gods children, except in the sense that He created humanity and did so in His image
and likeness.
In Psalm 82, when human beings are referred to as godsin the sense of
being Gods offspring intended to represent Him in authority and judgment
throughout the earththey are still declared imperfect and subject to corruption and death. So they are of the divine family in only a restricted sense.
One aspect of this is that man has been created in Gods image and
likeness on a physical, mortal level with limited dominion, resembling
God but without His divine character and glory. Another aspect of this is
that man has the ultimate potential of becoming the same kind of beings
the Father and Christ now are.
In fact, God often calleth those things which be not as though they
were (Romans 4:17, KJV)looking on His purpose as already accomplished. Amazingly, Gods purpose is to exalt human beings from this
fleshly existence to the same
level of divine spirit existence
that He has, as we will see.
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someone be filled with all the fullness of God and be anything less than
what God is? Therefore, at our ultimate change, we too will be divine
though the Father and Christ will forever be greater than us in authority
and majesty.
The teaching of deification
This biblical truth will surely come as quite a shock to those who have
heard only the traditional view of mainstream Christianity regarding the
ultimate reward of the righteous. Yet those who might be quick to assail
this teaching will perhaps be even more surprised to learn that many early
church fathers of mainstream traditionnot so far removed from early
apostolic teaching and before the Trinity doctrine took rootdid understand this incredible truth, at least in part. And hints of this are sometimes
seen even today.
Notice paragraphs 398 and 460 of the current Catechism of the Catholic
Church (1995), footnoted sources in brackets:
Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully divinized
by God in glory [but sinned] ...
The Word became flesh to make us partakers of the divine nature
[2 Peter 1:4]: For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God
became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with
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the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God
[Irenaeus (2nd century), Against Heresies Book 3, chap. 19, sec. 1].
For the Son of God became man so that we might become God
[Athanasius (4th century), On the Incarnation of the Word, chap. 54, sec.
3]. The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us share in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods
[Thomas Aquinas (13th century), Opusculum 57, lectures 1-4] (pp. 112,
128-129, emphasis added).
This teaching is even more prevalent in Eastern Orthodox tradition,
where it is known by the Greek term theosis, meaning divinization or
deification. It is wholly unlike the New Age concept of absorption into
universal consciousness or seeing oneself as inherently and presently
divine. Notice the remarkable explanation of the early theologian Tertullian,
writing around A.D. 200:
It would be impossible that another God could be admitted, when it is
permitted to no other being to possess anything of God. Well, then, you
say, at that rate we ourselves possess nothing of God. But indeed we do,
and will continue to do so. Only it is from Him that we receive it, and not
from ourselves.
For we will be even gods, if we deserve to be among those of whom He
declared, I have said, You are gods, and God stands in the congregation
in these verses is the plural Elohim (see Elohim:
The Pluraiity of God on page 50). Yet so unified is
the family that Christ as divine Spokesman speaks
with singular voice on the Fathers behalf.
The real message in these pronouncements
is that there is no other God apart from the
true Godthat is, outside the God family now
consisting of two divine Beings, the Father and
the Son. In short, the God family alone is God.
This even allows for the addition of others to the
divine familya truth spelled out in Scripture, as
explained in this chapter.
But what of the following verses? In Isaiah
42:8 God says, I am the Lord, that is My name;
and My glory I will not give to another, nor My
praise to carved images. Does that mean human
beings cannot receive divine glory? Other passages reveal that God will indeed share His divine
glory with His children who are transformed into
His image. What, then, is meant here? Note that
in parallel, God will not share praise with idols.
We should understand His not sharing glory in
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of the gods. But this comes of His own grace, not from any property in
us. For it is He alone who can make gods (Against Hermogenes, chap. 5,
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 480, quoted in Deification of Man, David
Bercot, editor, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, 1998, p. 200).
Indeed, this was the commonly accepted view during the early Christian
centuries (see our free booklet What Is Your Destiny? for more on this).
Some of the later theologians of this early period were, despite this understanding, veering into developing Trinitarianism. Yet earlier theologians
show no hint of Trinitarian ideas. Consider this remarkable statement from
the second-century bishop Irenaeus, who was taught when young by a
disciple of the apostle John: There is none other called God by the Scriptures except the Father of all, and the Son, and those who possess the adoption [i.e., sonship as Gods children] (Against Heresies, Book 4, preface).
So rather than the Trinitarian one God in three personsFather, Son and
Holy Spirit, Irenaeus proclaimed one God that includes the Father, the Son
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[i.e., sonship as Gods children] (Against Heresies, Book 4, preface; compare Book 3, chap.
6). Note that there is no hint here of a Trinitarian
formula in this early time period. That doctrine
wasnt formulated until much later.
Regrettably, in the centuries since it was
introduced, the Trinity doctrine has misled millions of people about who and what God really is.
By presenting God as three divine persons who
are simultaneously one, and as a closed group of
three, this teaching blinds people to the truth of
the Bible that God is a familya family into which
many others have the opportunity to enter!
Again, that family presently consists of two
divine Beings, the Father and Christ, but with
more to come who will likewise bear the family
name. Indeed, the human family was meant as a
lesser model or type of this greater spiritual reality.
Marriage is another aspect of this, as it is Gods
intention for those who are added to His family to
enter a divine marriage relationship with Jesus
Christ, the human covenant being patterned
after the higher, God-plane relationship (compare
Ephesians 5:22-23; Revelation 19:7-9).
To learn more about what the Bible has to
say on these matters, be sure to download or
request our free booklets Jesus Christ: The Real
Story, Who Is God? and Marriage and Family: The
Missing Dimension.
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Gods
Purpose for You
Is God a Trinity?
of the Father and Christ as leaders of the family. Truly, all will be subject
to Jesus, except the Father, and Christ will Himself be subject to the Father
(see 1 Corinthians 15:24-28). The Father and Jesus Christ will remain at the
top of the family forever, reigning supreme even with the addition of billions
of divine children.
This, then, is why you and I were born! It is the ultimate potential
destiny of all mankind. It is the awe-inspiring purpose for which we were
created. As Jesus quoted, foreseeing our destiny reached, I said, You are
gods. Our future cant get any higher or better than that!
How bankrupt and uninspired the Trinity doctrine is revealed to be
beside this wondrous and overarching truth! Sadly, the distortions of Trinitarian teaching hide what God has revealed about His nature and our awesome futuretwisting or obscuring the truth with egregious error. Indeed,
the Trinity denies the greatest truth we can knowthat God is a growing
family of which we can become part.
What a great tragedy that the Christian world has embraced such a
gargantuan fraud rooted in pagan philosophy and religion. Thankfully, the
truth of God is plain for those with eyes to see. Though the truth is not
incomprehensible like the Trinity, it doesin a very positive wayastound
the mind in the immensity and grandeur of its scope. May you hold fast to
the stunning and glorious destiny God has promised in His Word!
NASA
87
Authors: Scott Ashley, Tom Robinson, John Ross Schroeder Editorial reviewers: Gary Antion,
Bob Berendt, Bill Bradford, Aaron Dean, Bill Eddington, John Elliott, Roger Foster, Roy Holladay,
Paul Kieffer, Victor Kubik, Darris McNeely, Melvin Rhodes, Mario Seiglie, Robin Webber, Donald Ward
GT/1107/1.0
GT/1107/1.0